I wonder if McClendon believes in the Church of Baseball? You
know, the one Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) talked about in the
movie “Bull Durham.”

Annie’s philosophy:

I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the
major religions, and most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped
Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora
Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a
Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I
heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn’t work out
between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer
metaphysics to theology. You see, there’s no guilt in baseball, and
it’s never boring… which makes it like sex. There’s never been a
ballplayer slept with me who didn’t have the best year of his
career. Making love is like hitting a baseball: you just gotta
relax and concentrate. Besides, I’d never sleep with a player
hitting under .250… not unless he had a lot of RBIs and was a great
glove man up the middle. You see, there’s a certain amount of life
wisdom I give these boys. I can expand their minds. Sometimes when
I’ve got a ballplayer alone, I’ll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt
Whitman to him, and the guys are so sweet, they always stay and
listen. ‘Course, a guy’ll listen to anything if he thinks it’s
foreplay. I make them feel confident, and they make me feel safe,
and pretty. ‘Course, what I give them lasts a lifetime; what they
give me lasts 142 games. Sometimes it seems like a bad trade. But
bad trades are part of baseball – now who can forget Frank Robinson
for Milt Pappas, for God’s sake? It’s a long season and you gotta
trust it. I’ve tried ’em all, I really have, and the only church
that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of
Baseball.

Baseball gods or no baseball gods, other than Nelson Cruz
(,333, 14 HRs, 26 RBI) and Felix Hernandez (5-0, 1.73 ERA ),
there’s not a lot to get excited about right now when it comes to
the Mariners.

Annie Savoy wouldn’t have a lot of choices when it comes to
finding a hitter to sleep with. Other than Cruz, Robinson Cano
(.263), Kyle Seager (.255) and Seth Smith (.250) are the only
players hitting above .250.

This is a bad baseball team right now. Fernando Rodney has eight
saves, but a 5.56 ERA. Hishaski Iwakuma is on the DL, Taijuan
Walker (1-3, 8.74 ERA) and James Paxton (0-2, 5.08 ERA) were
thought to be can’t-miss prospects, and now you know why they play
the games.

It’s frustrating for the fans because the franchise had
such lofty expectation coming into this season. The Mariners
were considered, by just about everybody, a pretty good bet to
advance to the postseason for the first time since 2001.

Seattle opened the season as 12-1 favorites to win the World
Series, one of the four favorites in MLB according to the
sports book Bovada. The odds have dropped to 33-1 and the
Mariners now own the fourth-worst record in baseball.

Is it time to panic?

The Brewers (9-19, .321), Phillies (10-19, .345) and Indians
(10-16, .385) are the only MLB teams with worst records than
Seattle (11-17, .393).

Only Toronto (109) and Boston (95) have walked more hitters
than Seattle (90) pitchers. Opponents are hitting .256 against the
Mariners; the league average is .251.

Seattle’s also not getting it done on defense. The Mariners
are tied for 10th in fielding percentage (.982) and have made 19
errors in 28 games.

I repeat: Is it time to panic?

Will Zunino figure it out at the plate?

Will Cano find a semblance of a power stroke? He’s on pace to
hit 6 home runs.

Will Smith, Seth Ruggiano and the Rickie Weeks — three
off-season acquisitions — come to life. So far, only Smith has
produced and his numbers are marginal at best.

Austin Jackson’s on the DL with an ankle injury, but the center
fielder wasn’t getting the job done anyway.

The M’s have already started making moves. Chris Taylor was
recalled from Triple-A Tacoma and is now starting at shortstop.
Brad Miller is reportedly not happy about being turned into a super
utility player. And if Miller is the super utility guy, where does
that leave Willie Bloomquist? Can a team afford to carry two super
utility guys?

What happens to the offense if Cruz goes into a slump, and
you know it’ll happen at some point. What happens if Hernandez hit
the wall at some point? Will others step up?

Is it time to panic?

As bad as the results have been thus far, I think it’s
too early to throw in the towel. Check back after the upcoming
home stand. The Marineros play Oakland three
times, the Padres visit for two and Boston invades Safeco for
a four-game series.

Jason Hammel, a 2000 South Kitsap grad, has
struggle since being traded from the Chicago Cubs to the Oakland
Athletics. Hammel is 1-5 with a 6.75 ERA with Oakland. He gave
up three home runs in three-plus innings in a loss against
Atlanta on Friday. He was 8-5 with a 2.98 ERA with the Cubs.

South Kitsap grad Willie Bloomquist is done for
the year after undergoing micro fracture surgery on his right
knee. The Mariners utility player hit .278 in 47 games, playing
seven different positions.

Drew Vettleson is hitting .230 with seven HRs
and 23 RBI for the Double-A Harrisburg Senators, an affiliate of
the Washington Nationals. Vettleson, 23, an outfielder from Central
Kitsap, has hit two HRs in his last six games but is only hitting
.204 in his last 10 games. The left-handed hitting Vettleson
is hitting .280 vs. lefties and .198 vs. righties. All seven
of his HRs have come against right-handers.

South Kitsap grad Aaron Cunningham, an
outfielder, is hitting .255 with 0 HRs and 31 RBIs for the Reno
Aces, the Triple-A club of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Cunningham,
28, has hit .323 (10-for-31) with 5 RBI in his last 10 games.

Brady Steiger, a first baseman/third baseman,
is hitting .167 for the Staten Island Yankees, a short Class A
club in the New York-Penn League. The former South Kitsap and
Lewis-Clark State star just returned from injury and has played in
just two games since July 21.

SAYING ALL OF
THE RIGHT THINGS:

Rhode Island Little League coach Dave Belisle, following an
elimination loss at the World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania,
puts things in perspective for a bunch of kids. Great
speech.

To the Bellingham Bells, who won the West Coast League
championship on Monday night, winning the deciding game of the
best-of-three series against the Corvallis Knights. Good buddy Jim
Clem is the pitching coach of the Bells and we had the pleasure of
hosting the team twice this summer on trips to Bremerton to play
the Kitsap BlueJackets. Classy bunch.es

NOT SO
CLASSY:

Johnny (Finger) Manziel threw as many obscene gestures as he
did touchdown passes in Monday night’s exhibition game. Not a good
sign for the Browns.

Aug. 28: Washington State Cougars vs. Rutgers, in Seattle
(CenturyLink), 7 p.m., FOX Sports. Thursday game is
intriguing. Cougs looking to get off to a good start
against Scarlet Knights, now a member of the Big Ten.

Dude can fly: James (The Jet)
Jones is up to 14 steals (he’s been caught once) through
Tuesday and considering he didn’t get his first one until May 1,
that’s pretty impressive. Michael Saunders led the Seattle
Mariners with 13 steals a year ago. Ichiro (438 steals during
his time in Seattle), Jose Cruz (290) and Harold Reynolds
(228) are Seattle’s all-time leaders in steals, but the
M’s have never had a lot of speed guys. Willie Bloomquist (71)
ranks No. 11 in steals in franchise history. Jones, if he’s as
good as I think he might be, could pass Willie in the summer of
2015.

Speaking of Willie: The South Kitsap grad is
hitting .278, and get this — the M’s are 18-7 when he starts
(through Tuesday). That’s the stat that matters, right?

Sherm shuts up: Richard Sherman’s never been at
a loss for worlds, but he reportedly isn’t speaking to the media,
upset with the Seattle Times because
the newspaper published the
address of his new home. Got to side with Sherm on that
one. Some things don’t need to be printed, and that’s one of
’em.

World Cup fever: Portugal’s late goal in
extra time against the U.S. in the World Cup was a punch to the
gut, but it didn’t take long for me to get over the 2-2 tie.
I’m really looking forward to see how
Jurgen Klinsmann’s boys do against Germany on
Thursday (9 a.m. ESPN). Klinsmann is a former German star, a
legend in his country. He played on West Germany’s 1990 World
Cup championship team and coached the 2006 German World Cup team.
Germany is now coached by Joachim Lowe, a protege of
Klinsmann. The U.S., which needs a tie to move on to the round
of 16, has five players who grew up in Germany. This one promises
to be emotional. I can’t wait.

Speaking of soccer: How ’bout those Pumas?
Kitsap’s
soccer club is 6-0-4 and has opened a seven-point lead in the
Northwest Division of the PDL. Coach Andrew Chapman, the
Olympic High grad who has turned Peninsula CC into an NWAACC
power, seems to be making all of the right decisions. The
Pumas are one of six unbeatens in the 64-team league. Kitsap
won a national title in 2011, and it looks like the Pumas
are going to make another serious run this summer.

BlueJackets bashing: Kitsap’s summer college
baseball team, the BlueJackets, are off to a good start. Kitsap’s
8-5 and just a half-game back of Bellingham in the Western Division
of the West Coast League (through Tuesday). They boast the No. 1
(Danny Woodruff, .453) and No. 3 (Alex Bush, .395, 2 HRs, 15 RBI)
hitters. Woodruff’s an outfielder from Creighton who played in just
seven games as a freshman. Bush is a 6-foot-6, 255-pound first
baseman/DH who just graduated from high school in Turlock,
California. He’s going to be a freshman at UC Santa Barbara.
Kitsap’s second in hitting (.296 average) and eighth in pitching
(5.46 ERA) in the 12-team wood-bat league.

Hammel report: Jason Hammel, the 2000 South
Kitsap grad who is having a fine season (6-5, 2.99 ERA, 91 Ks, 20
BBs, 96.1 IP, 1.017 WHIP) for the Chicago Cubs, continues to
be linked to the Mariners.
This report says the Cubs and M’s have had serious talks, and
that Chicago wants RHP Edwin Diaz, Seattle’s third-round pick
in the 2012 draft, to be part of the package.

Minor league report: Brady Steiger (South
Kitsap/WSU/Lewis-Clark St.) hit his first home run as a pro over
the weekend. He plays for the Class A Staten Island Yankees. … Drew
Vettlesen (Central Kitsap) wrapped up an eight-game rehab stint
with the Auburn Doubledays. He was 4-for-4 on Friday and hit .318.
The outfielder, who broke a bone in his hand when hit by a ball in
April, is back with the Double-A Harrisburg (Pa.) Senators
(Nationals) of the Eastern League. He was 2-for-3 with a
stolen base on Tuesday. … Aaron Cunningham (South Kitsap/Everett
CC) hitting .258 with no homers and 20 RBI for the Reno Aces
(Diamondbacks) of the Pacific Coast League.

Back on the tee: Troy Kelly, the Central Kitsap
grad whose 2013 golf season was derailed by a knee surgery
after playing in just 10 PGA Tour events, is resuming his
comeback. He played in four Web.com events earlier, but made just
one cut and wasn’t satisfied with his game, so he returned to
Tacoma to work on it. There might be some rust when he
plays in this week’s Web.com tournament in Newburgh, Indiana.
He’s using it as a tuneup for the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic the
following week in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Kelly’s got
fond memories of Greenbrier, where he shot 6-under 63 in the third
round in 2012 to get into contention. He closed with a 66 and
wound up losing a playoff on the third hole to Ted Potter.
Kelly plans to play four straight weeks. He’ll head to Illinois for
the John Deere Classic in Illinois after the Greenbrier
Classic before returning to Boise, Idaho, for another Web.com stop.
… Kelly’s brother Ryan, his caddie, finished second in the Tacoma
City Amateur over the weekend.

Coming Friday: I’ll be writing about “The
Legend” later this week. That would be 83-year-old Buzz
Edmonds, a three-time winner of the Kitsap Amateur, nine-time
club champ at Kitsap Golf & Country Club and one of the nicest
guys you’ll ever meet. I chatted with Buzz and some of his golfing
buddies earlier this week. The story will publish Friday.

Nice sendoff: South Kitsap’s three-sport star
Logan Knowles, who is headed to the Naval Academy to play baseball,
wrapped up his high school career by going 2-for-4 with a home run,
double and 4 RBI in the consolation game of the Washington State
All-State Baseball Series in Yakima. His home run was the only one
hit during the weekend.

Recommended reading: Charlie Pierce, who writes
for Grantland,com, among other outlets, weighed in on the O’Bannon
vs. NCAA trial that is going on. He writes:

” … If you are a college athlete, you must — willingly
or unwillingly — help the NCAA and its member institutions keep
faith with Coca-Cola. One of the ugly moral truths about all our
sports is that athletes represent one of the categories of
Americans who can be legally and publicly treated as commodities,
and nowhere is that truth more obvious, and more ugly, than in
college athletics, where the athletes are not only forbidden from
profiting from their own commodification, but also required to help
the institutions they represent to profit from it. Then they have
to hear the people who profit most from the commodities who play
ball for them tell a judge that they’re doing it only for the
athlete’s own good. This trial is about the NCAA’s desire to
maintain that arrangement forever. Unless you’re afflicted with a
kind of moral myopia, this is no less than grotesque.”

Not a lot, but the World Cup might be the greatest show on
earth. I first paid attention to the World Cup in 2002 when South
Korea and Japan hosted the event. The games were televised live and
many of them were on in the wee hours of the morning.

A few of us got our World Cup on after work, which meant that
the fun didn’t start until after midnight. We usually warmed
up with a couple of sake bombers after heading to a
colleague’s home to watch the action unfold.

No sake bombers this time, but I’ll be watching as much of the
tournament as possible. Over the years I’ve become a fan of
Cameroon. The Les Lions Indomptables ((The
Indomitable Lions) have only make it out of the group stage once
(1990), and they’re underdogs once again. The Les Lions
Indomptables are in Group A, along with favorite and tournament
host Brazil, Croatia and Mexico.

Because of my Yugoslavian heritage, I’m also a big fan of
Croatia. I’m also pulling for Mexico, also known as
the El Tri. Mexico might have more fans in the U.S. than the
U.S. I’ve seen the passion of the Mexican people for their
soccer team while vacationing in Cabo, sitting side-by-side with
them while watching the El Tri advance to the second round in
2010. They were eliminated by Argentina that year.

So Group A is where my heart is, but Cameroon, Croatia and
Mexico all can’t advance. Who will join Brazil in the
round of 16? I think Mexico, but it wouldn’t
surprise me if Croatia grabs the second spot. I’d prefer Cameroon,
and it would be an improbable story if the Les
Lions Indomptables survive.

The U.S.? I think the Americans will defy the odds. They will
not only get out of a tough group (Germany, Portugal and Ghana are
the opponents), but I’ve got the U.S. winning a Round of 16 match
against Belgium before losing to Argentina in the
quarterfinals.

My weekly Thursday column was
about Willie Bloomquist, the South Kitsap grad who played in
his 1,000th career MLB game on Tuesday. Of those 1,000 games, he’s
started 684 of them. The breakdown by position: 244 at shortstop,
224 in the outfield (94 in center, 67 in left, 63 in right), 100 at
third base, 100 at second base and 16 at first base, including five
this season.

Silverdale’s Katie Lee has qualified for the U.S. Women’s
Amateur Public Links tournament, a championship that will be
conducted at The Home Course in Dupont, Washington, in July. It’s
the second straight year that Lee, the younger sister of UCLA and
Curtis Cup golfer Erynne Lee, has qualified for the APL.

Shooting from the hip as the sun sets on Memorial Day and I’m
thinking about my dad sitting in the back of a plane, landing and
taking off escort carriers — known as “baby flat tops” or “jeep
carriers” — in the Pacific and Atlantic during World War II. He was
a radarman/gunner on torpedo bombers. I can’t even imagine what it
must have been like. He tells the story of looking out
the small window where he sat in the plane and he could
see what looked like the entire Pacific fleet — big
carriers, cruisers, destroyers — chugging towards the
Philippines and Okinawa. Everywhere he looked, he said, he could
see U.S. ships.

“I was never so proud to be an American,” he said.

Here’s some other things I was thinking about while driving home
from Longview, where I watched the final day of the NWAACC baseball
championships on Monday:

* NWAACC baseball, at the championship level, is about as good
as it gets. I’d rather watch good college baseball than the pros.
The emotion and energy is unreal. And when you get two rivals
like Edmonds and Bellevue going head-to-head, you never know what’s
going to happen. They met for the eighth time this season and
Edmonds prevailed 7-6 in a back-and-forth, momentum-changing
game. It was the sixth NWAACC title in eight years for the powerful
North region. Everett won it all in 2013. My son’s an assistant
athletic director at Edmonds and Paul Gehring, the former Bremerton
High/Centralia CC/York College catcher who assisted at Olympic
College before taking an assistants job at Edmonds, is the strength
and conditioning and catcher’s coach at Edmonds. Casey Bohlmann, a
Central Kitsap/Bellevue CC/Hawaii-Hilo pitcher, is a
first-year assistant at Bellevue, where his responsibilities
include recruiting and helping coach pitchers.

* I admit it. I never appreciated Ray Allen as much as I should
have when he was with the Sonics. Best clutch shooter of all
time.

* Marshawn Lynch was a no-show when the Seahawks visited
the White House last week. His mom told the Seattle Times
the Seahawks’ running back “just didn’t want to go.” A
lack of respect for President Obama? Not at all. It was consistent
with how he handles off-the-field things. He doesn’t give many
interviews and makes few public appearances. He had no
obligation to show up in D.C.

* U.S. soccer coach Jurgen Klinsmann isn’t coming clean with his
reasoning for leaving Landon Donovan off the World Cup team.
Klinsmann said: ‘The ones we chose are just that inch ahead of ones
we didn’t choose in performance terms.” An inch? Donovan came up an
inch short. I’m not buying it. If there are 23 U.S. players
better than the 32-year-old Donovan, then the U.S. should not be an
underdog at all; they should contend for the title.

* Some former NFL players are suing the
league, alleging that professional football knowingly supplied
them with illegal narcotics and addictive painkillers. Even if the
NFL encouraged it, nobody held a gun to the players heads and
forced them to take pills or have someone poke needles in
their bodies.

* Willie Bloomquist is the Mariners’ best option at shortstop
right now, especially against left-handed pitching. Everybody
forgets that he was a regular most of 2011 (hit .266 in 381 at bats
with 20 stolen bases) when he helped the Diamondbacks win the NL
West. Bloomquist proved that he could play shortstop on an everyday
basis and hit leadoff for Arizona. He hit .302 the following season
(318 at bats) while serving as the everyday guy for an extended
period, and hit .317 an injury-plagued 2013 season when he was
limited to 48 games and 150 at bats. Yeah, I know he’s hitting
.192, but that’ll go up in a hurry if he gets regular at bats.
Besides, Brad Miller is hitting .150 and Nick Franklin’s at
.138.i

* The Derek Jeter Farewell Tour comes to Safeco Field on
June 10-11-12. He’s among the greatest Yankees in the storied
history of that franchise. Nobody will wear No. 2 again. It’ll
be retired alongside No. 3 (Babe Ruth), No. 4 (Lou Gehrig), No. 5
(Joe DiMaggio) and No. 7 (Mickey Mantle). Not sure where he ranks
among those immortals. He’s never led the league in hitting or won
an MVP, but has there ever been a more class act than Jeter?
Oh, by the way, no Yankee in history has more hits or has
played in more games than Jeter. There’s not a lot of players I’d
pay money to see, but I’m gonna pay money to see Jeter when he
passes through Safeco next month.

* The day was Oct. 28, 1988. I turned 36. The same day, I wrote
a column for The Sun, explaining why the grandstands at Roosevelt
Field should not have been torn down. It should have been
refurbished. For newcomers, Roosevelt was a grand old stadium that
sat where there’s now a parking lot at Olympic College next to the
Warren Avenue Bridge. I’ll turn 62 this October and still cringe
when I look at that parking lot. I’m still from the school that
says when you have a piece of usable recreational property you hang
onto it. You can’t replace a field in the core of the city.
Twenty-six years later, we know that to be true.

* Yeah, I was going through some old boxes, trying to downsize a
bit when I came across the column on Roosevelt Field. I also came
across a 1946 Bremerton Bluejackets program. It cost 10 cents back
in the day. That the was inaugural season of the Bluejackets (yes,
lower case J; the current West Coast League Kitsap BlueJackets
spell it with a capital J). The Bremerton Bluejackets were a
member of the Western International League, a Class B professional
team. They were managed by Sam Gibson and the team was
referred to as the “Gibsonmen” at times. Pitcher Joe Sullivan and
second baseman Frank Plouf were the only Bremerton players on the
roster that year. Oh, by the way, the Bluejackets, who were only
around three seasons, played their games at Roosevelt Field.

Attended the Mariners’ home opener on Tuesday with my dad and
son. Something about baseball and dads and sons that’s special. Mix
in my best friend, who is like a brother to me, another son to my
dad and another dad to my son and it was a really special day.

But back to that original thought about baseball and dads and
sons. Baseball’s different than any other sport and it all starts,
I think, with playing catch. No words are necessary. There’s
just something magical about it and the sound of the ball popping
in the leather glove.

My dad, now 89, would probably have a tough time playing catch
today, mostly because he blew out his arm while throwing so much
batting practice pitches to me and my friends while growing up.

Some quick thoughts on the Mariners:

You can’t help but be impressed with the easy-going, relaxed way
Robinson Cano plays the game. He oozes confidence and that’s going
to rub off on some of his teammates. I think it already has.

It’s so early, but manager Lloyd McClendon seems to be making
all of the right moves. We’ll see, but he seems to have a good eye
for talent. I like that he settled on Abraham Almonte as his center
fielder and leadoff hitter early on. I rolled my eyes at first when
he handed the first base job to Justin Smoak, but it retrospect
that was a good, confidence-building move. If guys don’t produce, I
think McClendon has a deep enough bench and enough talent at Tacoma
— Nick Franklin, Endy Chavez, Cole Gillespie — that he won’t
hesitate to make a move. He’s already rotating Michael Saunders,
Logan Morrison and Stefen Romero in right field.

I was the guy who predicted the M’s would win the AL West. That
was mostly predicated on the rest of the division slipping back
some, and the M’s strong starting pitching. If it stays healthy, I
think Seattle stays in the race all the way. James Paxton’s visit
to the DL for a strained lat doesn’t seem serious, but he’s a key
element to the rotation. I think the big lefty is just as good as
Taijuan Walker, who is working his way back from injury, as is
Hisashi Iwakuma. If they stay healthy, I’m sticking to my pick.

Corey Hart gave us a glimpse of what he could do for the M’s on
Tuesday. I wasn’t impressed with his first two swings as he fell in
an 0-2 hole against Angels starter Hector Santiago. I turned to my
son and said, “Is this guy going to be the next Richie Sexson?” A
couple seconds later he Hart crushed a pitch for a three-run
moonshot home run to left. He lined a ball over the dead
center-field fence for a homer in his next at bat. It got out about
thisquick. If he stays healthy, Hart could be a steal at
$6 million plus incentives.

One more M’s thought: Felix Hernandez is among a lot of MLB
players who wear their baseball hats a little crooked, but new
closer
Fernando Rodney takes that look to a new level. His hat is
practically sideways. How does it stay on his head?

North Mason grad and Central Washington infielder Kasey Bielec
is third in batting (.398) in the Great Northwest Athletic
Conference. Bielec, a junior, has five home runs and 28 RBI for the
Wildcats (18-13, 11-9 GNAC). He was 4-for-6 on Sunday in a split
with Western Oregon.

North Kitsap grad and former Kitsap BlueJacket Dan Jewitt of the
Omaha Mavericks was the Summit League Player of the Week last week.
The junior outfielder hit .526 (10-for-19) with six RBI and two
doubles. Jewitt’s hitting a team-high .400 for the Mavericks
(14-12, 3-3 Summit), starting 15 of the 18 games he’s played.

Drew Vettleson’s still looking
for his first hit at Double-A Harrisburg. The Senators outfielder
is hitless in 16 at bats. The former Central Kitsap star was
traded to the Washington Nationals by the Tampa Bay Rays
organization prior to the start of spring training.

Jason Day and Steve Stricker. If I was in a Masters’ pool, I
wish I had one of those guys. Wonder how long Fred Couples will
contend? You know he will. He’s always on the top of the
leaderboard for a couple days, then he fades. Maybe this is the
year he hangs tough?

UPDATE: There will also be signed Robinson Cano, Willie
Bloomquist and Abraham Almonte bats to bid on. The signed Cano
jersey and bat will be part of a package. We’ll also raffle off
some items. Everyone gets tickets at the door.

Went to the Mariners’ opener on Tuesday and there sure were a
lot of No. 22 jerseys in the crowd?

Want a chance to own your own signed Robinson Cano No. 22
jersey? How about a Felix Hernandez signed No. 34 jersey or signed
Hernandez baseball? Want a chance to bid on Seahawks and Mariners
tickets? How about Mariners tickets with field access prior to a
game? Want to bid on a foursome of golf with carts at Gold
Mountain, Kitsap Golf & Country Club and McCormick Woods? How
about a $300 gift card to Clearwater Casino?

Want to hear Port Orchard’s Willie Bloomquist talk about his
Major League Baseball career, or ask him some questions about the
current Mariners?

Would you be interested in learning how Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf
transitioned from Olympic bobsledder to Olympic broadcaster? Want
to ask her some questions?

All of this is possible if you stop by Port Orchard’s McCormick
Woods Golf Course for Thursday’s Kitsap Athletic Roundtable
meeting. Things get going with a 6 p.m. social hour. The program
starts at 7. There’s no dinner, but there will be a no-host
bar.

Tickets are $30 ($25 for KAR members) and $10 for students 18
and under and they will be available at the door.

Proceeds will help build a scoreboard at the South Kitsap High
School baseball field that will be named in honor of former coach
Elton Goodwin and to the Elton Goodwin Foundation, which will
provide scholarship money to South Kitsap students. Bloomquist’s
among there the hundreds and hundreds of players Goodwin touched
over the years.

A lot of people are donating items for the silent auction. The
signed Cano and Hernandez jerseys and trip to a Mariners game with
field access will be auctioned off live.

Bree Schaaf, an Olympic High grad, is a former Olympic
bobsled who worked as a broadcaster for NBC at the Sochi
Olympics.

Willie, a utility player for the Seattle Marners, will be able
to pick Schaaf’s brain about the sport during an April 10 Kitsap
Athletic Roundtable event at McCormick Woods Golf Course. The two
are going to be the headline speakers.

Proceeds from the event will go toward the purchase of a new
scoreboard for the baseball field at South Kitsap High. That field
will be named after
Elton Goodwin, the Hall of Fame coach who died of a heart
attack at 63 after having hip replacement surgery. Man, that’s
tough to type. My eyes still get all watery every time I think that
Elton’s not around anymore.

Bloomquist played for Goodwin and is one of five of his former
players to reach the majors. Jason Ellison, Jason Hammel, Sean
Spencer and Aaron Cunningham are the others. Hundreds of others
went on to play college baseball.

So here’s the details of the event.

Date: April 10, a Thursday.

When: social hour 6-7 p.m. with the program to follow.

Where: McCormick Woods Golf Course.

Cost: $30 ($25 for KAR members).

There will be several auction items, so bring your wallet.

It should be a fun night, and a chance to listen to two of the
most driven and successful athletes to come out of the area.

Tickets are being printed and will be available in advance.
We’ll let you know where you can get them as soon as they are
distributed.

If you can’t make it and and want to make a donation, you can
contact me at chuckstark00@gmail.com, or call Cully Ecklund at
360-470-0747. C’mon, let’s raise some money in Elton’s honor.

Good news for the Seahawksand their
fans: Defensive lineman Michael Bennett reportedly turned
down more money to sign
a four-year deal with the Seahawks. That’s a big signing as the
versatile Bennett was a big part of the NFL’s best defense. He was
Seattle’s best pass rusher. What’s the next priority, wide receiver
Golden Tate or defensive linemen Clinton McDaniel or Tony McDonald?
Tate’s such a good fit, at receiver and as a punter returner, and I
still don’t think we’ve seen the best out of him. If he’s willing
to take a lesser deal to stay, why not?

34-0: Haven’t paid much attention to NCAA
hoops this season, but it’s hard not to pull for
unbeaten Wichita State. They got to the Final Four as a
No. 9 seed a year ago. They should be a No. 1 seed this year. If
the Shockers run the table, they would be 40-0. Talk about
March Madness.

Willie Bloomquistupdate:
Willie was 3-for-3 on Sunday and seemingly fitting in with the
Mariners like a glove. The veteran utility player from South Kitsap
is going to be a McCormick Woods Golf Course on April 10 to help
raise money for a new scoreboard at the South Kitsap baseball
field, which will be re-named for the late, great coach Elton
Goodwin. The Kitsap Athletic Roundtable is hosting the event. More
details — time, cost, etc. — later this week.
Meanwhile, Seattle
Times columnist Jerry Brewer wrote about Bloomquist on
Sunday.

More Mariners: I know it’s only spring
training, but lots of young Mariners are having solid camps in
Peoria. Cole Gillespie has caught my eye. Former Oregon State
outfielder is hitting .533 (7-for-15) with a double, triple and 7
RBI. He can play left or right. Hit .300 and .308 at Triple-A Reno
in 2011 and 2012 with brief MLB duty with Arizona. He spent parts
of 2013 with Giants and Cubs. If Corey Hart isn’t ready to go
full-time at the start of the season, or if Michael Saunders
doesn’t produce, could there be room for a solid, all-around guy
like Gillespie? He’s 29. Maybe it’s his time?

Hot, hot hot: Olympic College’s Greta
Coleman, sophomore from Kingston, is 9-for-13 in her last three
games, all OC victories. She has had four doubles and seven RBI in
that stretch, including a game-winning hit in the bottom of the
seventh against Southwest Oregon on Sunday when she ripped a line
shot to RCF on an 0-2 count. Coleman and Alexa Eckonomakis are
transfers from Shoreline, which dropped its program for a year
after going through coaching changes.

Nice RAC: Olympic College’s softball had
an opportunity to play at the Regional
Athletic Complex in Lacey on Sunday. Four fields with turf
infields and grass outfields. (There’s also six regulation
soccer/football/rugby fields). Best complex around. Wonder if the
Kitsap rec departments or school districts will ever get one
turfed field for baseball or softball. We’re so far behind
you wonder if we can ever catch up.

Troy Kelly birdied three of his final four
holes on Sunday to tied for 23rd in the PGA Tour’s Chile Classic in
Santiago, Chile. Nice effort after being out of competition for a
year. Kelly plays three more Web.com Tour events — in Brazil,
Panama and Louisiana — before returning to the PGA Tour at the
Houston Open.

Black and red and winning: Did you see who
broke out his red shirt and black pants on Sunday while winning a
PGA Tour event? Yeah, Patrick Reed, the latest young gun. This Reed
guy might be the real thing. He’s 23 and he’s already won three
tour events. And he’s pretty confident, too. Pretty confident?
Hell, he’s Larry Bird/Muhammad Ali/Richard Sherman on grass. Read
this
New York Daily News story to get a flavor.

More golf news: UNLV’s Carl Jonson, a junior
from Bainbridge, tied for eighth and helped the Rebels win the
Collegiate Masters at South Highland Golf Course in Las Vegas.
Jonson shot 4-over 70-78-72—220 and tied for eighth
individually in a tournament that featured the toughest field of
the season.

Spent about nine hours on the road and at the ballpark today,
and what did we have to show for it?

Nothing. Such is life if you’re part of a softball or baseball
team that’s trying to get in some games in the Northwest. Mother
Nature comes out on top a lot and it prevailed once again.

After warming up in the rain for 90 minutes at Lacey’s Regional
Athletic Complex (known as The RAC), games were cancelled and the
Olympic College softball team headed to a nearby restaurant for
dinner, then a drive home in the driving rain. In case you’re
wondering, I’m a volunteer assistant.

It’s now closing in on 9:30 p.m. I’m home. It’s still raining
and I’m watching Washington State school UCLA in basketball, and
wondering if it would be better to just go to bed. We lose an hour
of sleep tonight, and the vans leave at 8:30 a.m. for another trip
to Lacey, where the artificial turf could be playable. Or maybe
not.

In the meantime, here’s some links:

Jason Hammel pitches three shutout innings for the Cubs in
his first official spring game of the season. The South Kitsap grad
walked three batters in the first inning, but got out of the jam.
Afterwards,
he said he might have been a bit nervous.

Willie Bloomquist, who delivered an RBI single on Saturday,
says he’s happy to be a Mariner. “Who gets to put a
uniform on twice and play in your hometown?” he told
Greg Johns of MLB.com.

Troy Kelly had an eagle on the par-5 14th hole and shot 2-under
70 in the third round of the Chile Classic at Santiago, Chile. The
35-year-old Central Kitsap grad is 7-under for the tournament and
tied for 25th heading into Sunday’s final round of the Web-com Tour
stop. He’s six strokes off the lead. Tacoma’s Andrew Putman is tied
for seventh after a 4-under 68. He’s at 206 for three rounds.
Putman was second in the Web.com’s season opener at Puerto Rico.
His bother, Michael Putnam, was the Web.com’s Player of the Year in
2013. Ex-Husky and Canadian Nick Taylor is tied for 50th after
carding a 70 on Saturday.

Supercross champ Ryan Villopoto ended his five-race winless
streak with a wire-to-wire win at Daytona. The Poulsbo rider with
the RV2 moniker grabbed the lead at the start and won by over 12
seconds despite a fall. “So pumped to get the win tonight! This one
felt good!” he tweeted.